I've been having a ripping time!

And it feels sooooo good!!

It’s not often I shock people. I’m not someone who purposely courts controversy or who engenders strong feelings in others, apart from my own family - at least I don’t think so! Of course there are those who don’t like my art or my writing; that’s okay, you can’t please all of the people all of the time. But shock; no, that’s not a word I would normally associate with myself.

Nonetheless, this last week has seen people react with ‘horror’ and yes, shock, leaving a stream of ‘open-mouthed’ emojis, or comments along the lines of ‘“What are you doing?”, “Those could be cards, smaller works, collage, advertising material etc……” or “Why don’t you just slow down, take more time over your work, give it more thought,” and so on…..

What had I done to cause such a reaction?

I had had a studio tidy up, leading to a cathartic clear out of work!

Once I decided the work no longer served me, there was no going back, leading to a very therapeutic session of ripping! I can highly recommend it!!

For a while now, it’s seemed as if there’s something bubbling away under the surface with regards to my art; exploration I want to undertake, experiments to try. BUT it feels as if I’m lacking the mental and physical space to do so; the ‘clutter’ in my studio is overwhelming me. I finally decided to do something about it.

Rip! Tear! Shred! Scrunch! So satisfying.

I did think about using some of the discarded work for collage or cards etc., but a) they really were bad, and b) doing that felt as if the work was just being moved from one pile to another one.

So, ripped and torn, into the bin it went! And it was amazing how much ‘lighter’ I felt. Walking into the studio, my shoulders relaxed, I exhaled deeply; the neural networks in my brain slowly unscrambling.

Not all is lost though. I deemed that some ’experimental pieces and preparatory studies’ could be viewed as works of art in their own right, so I decided to make them available to purchase in my ‘Studio Sale’.

There’s over 40 pieces of work on paper available…starting from £20. And the sale began today at 9.00AM over on my website…

In the meantime, I’m continuing with the ‘de-cluttering’ of the studio. Even though it’s only a temporary space (until OH builds THE studio), I still want it to be a place that I look forward to spending time in, and that means, to coin a phrase, ‘A place for everything and everything in it’s place’…

I don’t think it’s Minimalism in the true sense, just a paring back of ‘stuff’ to enable me the space to live and work and as I want…

And sometimes, that means trying to say what I want with as few marks as possible…

And if that means that I have to rip up work, then so be it!!

P.S. I still haven’t managed to get the top of that bottle of ink…

"September days have the warmth of summer in their briefer hours, but in their lengthening evenings a prophetic breath of autumn."

Rowland E. Robinson 

Here in the northern hemisphere we might be on the cusp of autumn, one of my favourite times of the year, and where the abundance of summer is being harvested, and nature is preparing for hibernation…but that doesn’t mean that she has lost any of her charm.

The last of the neighbour’s hollyhocks scatters her deep crimson petals, leaving a single spire shrouded by curling leaves…

“Lovelydeadcrap” might be an inauspicious name for an Instagram account, but the images posted demonstrate the beauty of flora in decay…

And as it is almost the end of the month, it’s time for my paid subscriber prize draw. And, drum roll, the winner is:

I’ll be in touch shortly via email, so keep an eye out in your inbox/junk!

Until next time, happy painting!

P.S. In case you missed my latest YouTube video - Watercolour & Ink Warm Up - here’s the link.